The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) has named ESPN’s Jemele Hill as their 2018 recipient of the Journalist of the Year award.
For over 40 years, thousands of students, freelance and professional journalists gather together in a different city across the country for NABJ’s annual convention and career fair.
At the convention — held in Detroit, Michigan from Aug. 1 to Aug. 5 — NABJ holds their Salute to Excellence Awards where Hill will receive the top honor.
“This is the biggest accomplishment of my career,” said Hill in a press release issued by NABJ.
Hill, a Detroit native, joined ESPN in 2006 as a columnist. Throughout the years, Hill appeared as an on-air correspondent on ESPN shows like The Sports Reporters and alongside Michael Smith rebranded the network’s SportsCenter or SC6.
Over the years, Hill has unapologetically exercised her right as a woman in a male-dominated beat. More recently, she became an unstoppable force by taking on President Donald Trump.
Hill took to Twitter in September 2017, as the president usual does to express himself, and called out President Trump as “the most ignorant and offensive president of my lifetime.”
As Hill’s outspoken tweets received praise from thousands, while she received backlash like the White House calling for ESPN to fire her. Instead, Hill was suspended for two weeks, drawing the question as to whether personal opinions should enter the corporate world.
The hashtag #IStandWithJemele trended and she has had no regrets.
Watching Hill on ESPN, not only gave African-American women someone who looked like them on a sports station. She is knowledgable and makes sure she gets her point across while sporting any versatile hairstyle only us African-American women can sport every other week.
(Nope. That Sage Steele does not count.)
Meeting Hill at NABJ’s Philly Convention in 2012 was amazing because she is amazing and extremely down to Earth.
Congratulations Hill, from the 32Letter staff.
